Thank You for a Wonderful year! Presenting the Top 10 posts of 2015 (and then some) at Black Women of Brazil

As unbelievable as it seems, once again we’ve come to the close of yet another year! This is the fifth time this blog has seen the end of the year and again we would like to take this time to thank all of you who made this another incredible year here at Black Women of Brazil! According to the numbers, this year was even better than last year as an incredible December allowed us to sail past last year’s total views with 17 days to spare! It just goes to show that there is a lot of interest in what is going on in Brazil from the perspective of race.

To finish out a banner year, we will once again present the Top 10 most viewed posts of the year. As only four of this year’s Top 10 were actually posted in 2015, we will also include another six that debuted in 2015 so we can also see the highest ranking material only released in the current year. So with no further delay, let’s get to it!

Number 6 in our countdown is a holdover from 2014 and one can understand why. People will never tire of searching for beautiful women on the internet and Brazil has a reputation for having some of the world’s most stunning women. Check out ten of them who are beautiful beyond the context of the European standard in the piece “The Top 10 Most Beautiful Black Women of Brazilian television”

Journalist Maria Júlia Coutinho, known as Maju

At Number 5, we have a piece that initially wasn’t a big hit when it was first posted back in May of this year. But at the end of November several top internet sites featured a story about a campaign created by a black women’s group in Brazil that sought to shame those who post racist comments on social networks. In the post, the article mentioned an example of these racist attacks that victimized the journalist known as Maju, linked to our article and suddenly everyone wanted to know who this Globo TV rising star was. The post was entitled “Globo TV’s first black weather girl, journalist Maria Júlia Coutinho’s star continues to rise!”

Coming in Number 4, we have another piece originally posted in 2013 that continues to resonate with many readers. The piece was a collaboration between a black Brazilian and a black American and surely added to a conversation that’s being happening for several years now: African-Americans ‘discovering’ Brazil. The controversial piece is entitled: “A message to the African-American community on stereotypes about Brazilian women”

Futebol star Neymar

At Number 3, we have yet another holdover from 2013 and it’s not surprising why. International futebol star Neymar continues to reach new heights in his career, having won titles in important in European and Latin American championships, and also being considered a top contender for best international player ever since he joined the Barcelona team in Spain. With a career that is still in its early years, we expect that Neymar’s name will continue to be one of the most searched in the sports world, which will lead many people to seek information about the ‘boy wonder’ beyond the soccer stadiums. Check out our top article about the Neymar phenomenon in the post: “Neymar’s blond ambition and the question of racism, identity and marketability of black public figures”

At Number 2 comes another piece from 2013, this one posted on December 29, 2013, almost exactly two years ago. The intrigue about this article will likely continue for years to come as Africans and descendants of Africans seek more information about how the brutal institution of slavery played out in the largest, most populous country in Latin America as well as the country that received the most African slaves and was the last country in the Americas to abolish this horrific practice. That article was entitled “25 curious facts about slavery in Brazil”

And finally we’ve come to the top post of 2015, an original from this year. This piece reveals a lot about how the idea of “good hair”/”bad hair”, and what type of hair is seen as professional and what is not. It is yet another example of the lie that says that if black people get an education, status and a good salary, they will not experience racism. As cabelo crespo(kinky/curly hair) is one of our top subjects on this blog, it should come as no surprise that thousands of people identified with the article “Doctor suffers racism because she wears dreadlocks”

Now, as was promised in the introduction, we will now present another six pieces to round out a Top 10 list of the most popular posts that debuted in 2015. Six of the Top 10 featured above were posted in previous years, so here we present numbers 5 through 10 that were posted between January 1st and December 31st of 2015.

Our Number 9 most popular post debuting in 2015 was a piece about the ongoing battle of black women for identity and resistance against the domination of Eurocentric standards of beauty. This struggle can noted in numerous posts on this blog that deal with racial identity and the acceptance of natural hair texture. The article “Identity and Resistance: black women in the battle against standards of beauty” touches on many of these issues and how Afro-Brazilian women are organizing for self-esteem and self-acceptance.

Journalist Maju was the target of numerous racist comments on a social network in one of the year’s most talked about topics

So there you have it! The Top 10 overall posts of the year as well as the Top 10 released only in 2015. We hope you enjoyed the year and the information we brought you and hope to see you continue to follow us in the coming 2016! If you like the views and information on this blog, be sure to share with a friend as we can only succeed with your support. Thanks again and when we post again it will be a whole new year! Look forward to seeing you then!